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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29937843">What Do You Say?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApomaroMellow/pseuds/ApomaroMellow'>ApomaroMellow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Childhood Friends, Fluff, Jedi Finn (Star Wars), Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Reunions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:08:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,296</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29937843</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApomaroMellow/pseuds/ApomaroMellow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn and Poe meet intermittently as kids and get closer through the years.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Poe Dameron/Finn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What Do You Say?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I was about 90% done with this before realizing I was working up to write a Finnpoe version of What Do You Say? from Black Friday and that's where this title is from.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time Finn met Poe, he thought they'd never get along. Poe looked like the rough sort of kids that had bullied Finn back home. And his hands looked greasy. Finn had stayed just a little behind Master Luke. Not hiding. But also hoping that if he wasn't completely seen, he wouldn't be made to play with the other kid, just like all adults made all children do whenever they wanted to talk to their adult friends. As if all kids got along all the time.</p><p>But Master Luke wanted to talk to his sister about important stuff. And that meant no children around. Finn tried not to frown too much when Poe took his hand.</p><p>When it was time to leave, Finn protested, asking to stay longer.</p><p>He got a look from Luke, as if the man had seen this coming. But it didn't change anything. They still had to leave and his sister wasn't running a babysitting service, despite was Poe's presence said.</p><hr/><p>Poe didn't see Finn again for another two years and because of that, he only had a vague memory of a kid he'd played with once. But he wasn't a kid anymore. He was nine and that meant he was practically a teenager.</p><p>This time Poe had been with his parents and Finn had been brought along with someone he didn't recognize. But he wore robes that he'd seen before. The kind of uniforms that Poe didn't exactly understand but thought were cool. And Finn was cool too. He had these weird powers and could move stuff with his mind.</p><p>"It's not 'moving stuff with my mind'. It's the Force", Finn tried to explain again, the way the older jedis did. Although even he didn't fully comprehend it. "It's more like there's a bunch of invisible hands. And if I focus really hard, I can use one of those hands."</p><p>"It's still really cool. I can't do any of that stuff", Poe said while bending some scraps of metal in his hand.</p><p>"Yeah, but I can't do that", Finn pointed at what he was working on.</p><p>Poe looked down to the creature he'd been making. Even he couldn't tell what it was, but he knew it had four legs and a tail. He liked fiddling with stuff and making other stuff with it. It was usually metal, since they had plenty of that to go around. Since Finn had said so, Poe felt a little proud of his work.</p><p>"Let's play hide and seek!"</p><p>They played for hours, taking turns finding each other. Poe was the better one at finding. But he had to admit that Finn found really good hiding spots. When it came time for Finn to leave, Poe felt a little sad, but his parents assured him he'd see Finn again.</p><p>And they had been right. It wasn't everyday, which Poe would have preferred, but he did see Finn a lot for the next couple of years, always accompanied by one of those jedi folk.</p><p>Then just as quickly it was all over. Finn came to him one day, more somber than he normally was.</p><p>"They say I'm at an important part of my training. And that I've really gotta focus. They're practically moving me to another galaxy."</p><p>"So what? We can't see each other anymore?", Poe asked, looking very much like he was going to knock some heads with the tool in his hand.</p><p>"Just not for now", Finn said quickly. "But we can still talk. They're not taking comms away from me."</p><hr/><p>For the next few years, Finn's only connection through Poe was his voice. The transmissions were audio only but Finn didn't mind. He found it very easy to imagine Poe's smile when he was excited and his pout whenever they had to wrap things up.</p><p>Once, just once, Finn tried to reach out and feel for Poe. It had been a few years and he'd already been trained to do so; to feel the life force of those around them. And could now recognize the unique signature of Rey, another apprentice being taught along with him. But that was only when she was right next to him. Poe was at least a whole solar system away.</p><p>Still, he tried. He thought of what Poe meant to him, how it felt to talk to him, how his voice sounded. Finn wasn't able to cross planets and feel Poe's life energy. But when he opened his eyes, he was floating.</p><hr/><p>It's a common thing in long distance relationships, whether romantic or platonic. Especially when one is growing up. You get a little busier each year and have less time to talk. And whenever you do have news, you wonder if the person on the other end is busy. Or if it's been so long since you've talked that their no longer invested in your life. Eventually the calls decreased. Poe felt bad every time he thought about calling Finn but not having the energy too.</p><p>Some days he'd wonder what Finn was getting up to. How was his training going? Was he a full fledged jedi now? Did he ever get into danger? Now that he was older, Poe understood the heavy responsibility on Finn's shoulders. He never wanted to distract him from his work or take up his time when he needed to rest. Then it got to a point where it had been so long that Poe figured Finn wasn't even thinking of him anymore.</p><p>So when General Leia had deployed him and his team to a mission where she had explicitly said some of their jedi friends would be part of the ground force, he tried not to hope. The chances of Finn being among them were slim. And even if he <em>was</em> there, it wasn't liked there'd be some heartfelt reunion. They hadn't talked in years. They were both totally different people now.</p><p>When the battle ended, Poe landed to meet with the jedi who had apprehended their surrendered enemies. He staunchly kept his eyes forward on the jedi in front of him. He wasn't looking for Finn. He wasn't looking for Finn. He wasn't looking for Finn.</p><p>After settling up and getting their new prisoners to a transport, Poe had been just about to return to his own ship. Then something compelled him to stop and look to the side.</p><p>And there was Finn.</p><p>"...Hey", Poe said, feeling a little breathless, which was weird, that was weird, right?</p><p>"Hey", Finn replied.</p><p>Poe couldn't believe the man standing before him. Of course Finn would grow up, that's how bodies worked. He looked so different. So mature. Did he look any different in Finn's eyes? Was that a good thing? Did he look more like a man? Poe normally kept his face clean shaven but maybe he should've started a beard? He'd just finished an air fight, he must've been a sweaty mess and probably had the worse helmet hair. His heart was beating rapidly, more than happy to see Finn again but also wishing that he could've gotten some warning.</p><p>"You look good. Like a real jedi." Poe noticed the absence of a braid. Had it really been that long?</p><p>"You too. Like a real pilot", Finn said with a cheeky grin.</p><p>"Yeah..."</p><p>"...Yeah..."</p><p>For a while, they seemed frozen and Rey looked on with worry. "Are they stuck?", she asked Luke.</p><p>Luke simply hushed her and led her away. As entertaining as it was, he figured he'd be nice and leave them to it. Even after they left, both young men hesitated, trying to think of what to say, almost saying it, and then re-thinking their words. Then Finn finally gathered the nerve.</p><p>"I've missed you."</p><p>And Poe was floating.</p>
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